The Ghost Comes Home (1940) Online

This fairly standard piece of situation comedy would be most appealing to fans of Frank Morgan, who is charming in his role. There is a curious appeal in seeing The Wizard of Oz married to Glinda the Good Witch, but unfortunately Billie Burke is in only a few scenes.

The script has some funny lines, and I'd be intrigued to find out how much of the dialogue was contributed by screenwriter Richard Maibaum, who wrote a lot of the James Bond movies.

Geez, this comment sounds much more lukewarm than I actually feel about the movie. Morgan is delightful and I enjoyed the time I spent watching the film...to about the same degree that I'd enjoy three good TV sitcoms.

I think one of the more overlooked actors of his day was Frank Morgan. While he's known today for playing the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz", he also starred in quite a few charming films for MGM...films that provided him a chance to play a likable fellow. My favorite is "A Stranger in Town"...but this one is awfully good as well.

Vern Adams is a bit of a henpecked milquetoast...and a bit of a nobody. He's a nice enough guy but no one, including his family, takes him very seriously. Out of the blue, he receives a phone call from Australia! It's an old childhood friend who announces he wants to leave $500,000 to his hometown AND he wants Vern to come to Australia, all expenses paid, to see him and discuss what how the money will be used. Suddenly, folks LOVE Vern and he's a hero in his town.

Unfortunately, through a series of bad choices, Vern misses his ship and ends up in jail. No one in town knows this...and when he get out of jail he learns this old friend has died AND left nothing in the will about the legacy. He's worried his friends and neighbors will now hate him...but this turns out not to be the case. Why? Because the ship sank and he's been declared dead...and the family has collected on his insurance policy!! So, his family is in trouble for insurance fraud (after all, they've spent all the money) and Vern has no idea what to do next. How does he extricate himself from this mess? See the film.

As was often the case with Morgan's films, excellent writing and his sweet acting carry the film. Overall, clever, original and well worth seeing.

Well I am really out of step with the other reviewers here of this dated but still very entertaining comedy. I found the script to be really really amusing, the pacing fast and betraying stage play roots. Yes, the plot, about a man who has spent time in jail instead of being lost at sea as is believed, then returning home to discover his extended family have all but spent the insurance settlement paid upon his "death" is far fetched, it is supposed to be, it is merely a framework for the gags and set pieces, most of which still function very well despite their antiquity. Forget about Morgan and Burke having been in "Wizard Of Oz", this is a different beast, a Hollywood "screwball" comedy which I believe still works today. Watch it if you get a chance!

The Ghost Comes Home is mainly of interest for the presence of those Wizard Of Oz cast members Frank Morgan and Billie Burke. Morgan plays his usual henpecked milquetoast character who usually can't get a word in edgewise at home.

Morgan signed an MGM contract in 1935 and did the vast majority of films for that studio from then on in. They divide into two parts, those for whom he's in support of some of their top stars and B films like this one where he's the lead.

Morgan is his usual befuddled self with wife and kids and a pair of sponging brothers-in-law operating a pet store that barely makes ends meet. meet. One day he receives a trans-Pacific call from Australia and it's from a school days friend Richard Carle who struck it rich in the land down under. Come on down says Carle, he's making out his will and wants some advice on who in his old home town should benefit.

So it's off to New York where he manages to walk into a nightclub brawl and does 60 days of municipal hospitality. He misses the boat and it gets sunk with all on board lost. His family thinks him dead and they cashed in on a $10,000.00 insurance policy. Think of that in today's dollars and they came into quite a windfall.

Knowing that if he's seen the whole family is in trouble, those who've walked all over him all these years. Especially those two sponges Nat Pendleton and Frank Albertson. The worm does turn.

Of course there's been fraud committed, unintentional but still fraud. How it all gets resolved is for you to watch the film. But it has a lot to do with traveling bandleader John Shelton who came through Morgan's small town and got involved with daughter Ann Rutherford.

Also in this cast are again a lot of familiar character players like Donald Meek, Hobart Cavanaugh, and a slew of others that make watching films of this era such a joy.

A nice product from MGM's B picture unit.

There's not a ghost to be had in this flimsy comedy about a hen-pecked husband returning home to his family after failing to board a cruise-ship which eventually sunk. Much to his embarrassment, the family, thinking he was dead, already cashed in on his insurance policy. Inept slapstick does reunite Frank Morgan with Billie Burke one year after "The Wizard of Oz", and Morgan in particular manages a very natural, sweet performance--but his efforts are wasted on such foolish material. Poorly-directed, poorly-produced movie is full of stupid supporting characters and surprisingly cruel jokes. Not even The Wizard himself could give this one a home... * from ****

O.K., so it isn't the wizard married to the Good Witch of the North, just the same actors, but it is quite a coincidence that it is the year after that classic family musical fantasy. Frank Morgan heads to New York from a small town to catch a ship to meet a wealthy old friend giving him money to help out their home town. Circumstances have him missing that ship, presumed dead, and coming back to humorous results. Billie Burke puts aside magic wands as she expresses shock over his return in her bird-twittering like fashion, and it is revealed that the family is now in jeopardy of going to jail because of insurance fraud.

Burke and Morgan are aided by a fine supporting cast, including Donald Meek as an annoyingly suspicious neighbor, Ann Rutherford as Morgan and Burke's daughter, John Shelton as her love interest, Nat Pendleton as the handyman forced into marriage to a prickly spinster (Renie Riano), a Mary Wickes/Margaret Hamilton type who has already buried two husbands who couldn't handle the work she demands to run her farm. The scenes with Pendleton moving furniture up and down the stairs to Morgan's hiding place and with the romantically starved widow are comic highlights giving this "B" feature something to rise above its pedestrian qualities.

Starring Frank Morgan and Billie Burke, who starred as "The Wizard" and "The Good Witch" in The Wizard Of Oz a year earlier, you'd expect quite a bit from this movie. Unfortunately, it's a far cry from that 1939 classic.

In an incredibly far-fetched comedic plot, a family father (Morgan) is presumed dead and his wife (Burke) and family cash in his life insurance policy. Dad comes home unexpectedly, of course, and hilarity ensues (well, kinda).

An inoffensive little movie that is well acted all around, but really has little story to offer. It can still keep your interest for 80 minutes when the other 90 cable channels are offering nothing better, as is often the case. I'm always amazed by the quaintness of these earlier films, when people actually fainted when surprised (did that ever REALLY happen?) and grown brothers slept in the same bed.

Pleasant enough, just don't expect movie magic.

The "but" here is that if there was any question as to the quality acting done by Billie Burke, that is answered here. Lousy.

On the other hand, the movie is carried by one factor alone -- the delightful characterization by Frank Morgan. Of course, nothing much new here...Frank Morgan usually played Frank Morgan...and that's why we liked him. As with many of his MGM B films, Morgan wasn't given much to work with. A story line which could have been made into a pretty decent film...but wasn't...and that's why it's a B movie. A few of Morgan's MGM B films were pretty good...this one really wasn't. Morgan really shined as the lead supporting actor in many of MGM's A movies.

You'll see faces of quite a few character actors here that you'll recognize, though none stand out. It's just "that" kind of picture.

So, enjoy Frank Morgan, and find interesting that the Good Witch and the Wizard Of Oz are playing together one more time...and right after "The Wizard Of Oz".

I started watching this because it features some of my favorite actors. Since it's an MGM movie, I figured it would be good for some pleasant comedy, and maybe even more.

Instead, it turned out to be a train wreck. The script, which is terrible, goes nowhere. There is no comedic timing in the movie, though it features some first-rate comedians, like Frank Morgan and Billie Burke.

How, I kept wondering, could MGM have produced this? How?

I have no idea.